Young driver trio clock up important Friday mileage

26 November 2011

F1's potential stars of the future, Jean – Eric Vergne, Roman Grosjean and Luiz Razia all impressed during their Friday outings at Sao Paulo which saw the drivers in question carry out important development running during the day.

Friday's FP1 session at Sao Paulo resembled last week's young driver test at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina Circuit with a number of future F1 hopefuls all getting a chance to impress on the big stage.

The drivers in question included Toro Rosso's French young gun Jean–Eric Vergne, Lotus' Brazilian local boy Luiz Razia and Renault protégé Roman Grosjean, who technically doesn't qualify as a young driver/rookie after his previous short-lived stint with the French team following the unsavoury debacle which saw the Frenchman replace Nelson Piquet Jr during 2009.

All three seemed positive after their morning's work, which entailed a fair amount of development running in a number of areas.

Local favourite Razia unsurprisingly maintained he felt comfortable right from the off given his young driver running from last week's Abu Dhabi test. The Lotus driver carried out 'a busy programme' during the morning while posting a time good enough for 20th, a proud moment for the Brazilian.

“I'm really pleased with how my session went today," he said, "It was a very proud moment for me to be back on track in Interlagos, this time in an F1 car, a real dream come true, so I want to thank the whole team for the chance to drive here today. I'd had a good run in the car last week in Abu Dhabi so I felt comfortable pretty quickly, and I think my lap times showed that.

"We worked through a busy programme, including comparisons with the new rear wing the team has brought here against the previous spec we used in Abu Dhabi. I could feel immediately what a good step forward that is and I'm pleased I could play my part today in helping the team keep progressing, right up to the last race here in my home country.”

Toro Rosso's Vergne, who incidentally has been tipped as a potential driver for the team next season, was getting his first taste of the Sao Paulo circuit. The Frenchman, like Razia, carried out the necessary Friday running for his team, along with a fair amount of experimental running, obligatory for this time of the season. The young French ace finished just two positions up the road from Razia in 18th.

“I have enjoyed the brief time spent driving Friday mornings for Scuderia Toro Rosso," said Vergne, "The main purpose has been to give me as much F1 mileage as possible, while also working on the team's normal free practice programme. The start of today's session was quite tricky, on a track I didn't know with a surface that was a bit dirty at first, but the track itself is great fun to drive.

"I did my first run on the medium tyres then, for the next two, I used the experimental hards that Pirelli brought here for us to try out. Myself and [STR team-mate] Jaime [Alguersuari]also worked on an aero programme. I ran with low downforce and I found it difficult as I clearly lacked grip, but that does not matter, because it produced useful data for the team, which I hope will help them get a good result this weekend. I also want to thank them and Red Bull for giving me this opportunity.”

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